I've pulled the belly pan and stripped the insulation on my new to me '67 Ambassador. Luckily the floor and frame are in pretty good shape but I do have one problem to resolve. On the the curb side the wall base channel bolts throughthe plywood floor and the ends of the outriggers, but on the street side the plywood floor continues past the end of the outriggers and the base channel just bolts through the plywood. This would not be a problem except that for a 6'-0 section of wall behind the wheel well the bolts have broken out of the plywood edge.
What I would like to know is what have you folks encountered? Is what I have typical?
My plan is to weld tabs to the end of the outriggers so that I can pull the wall back in and tie it horizontally to the frame. Does this seem like a good plan?
I've pulled the belly pan and stripped the insulation on my new to me '67 Ambassador. Luckily the floor and frame are in pretty good shape but I do have one problem to resolve. On the the curb side the wall base channel bolts throughthe plywood floor and the ends of the outriggers, but on the street side the plywood floor continues past the end of the outriggers and the base channel just bolts through the plywood. This would not be a problem except that for a 6'-0 section of wall behind the wheel well the bolts have broken out of the plywood edge.
What I would like to know is what have you folks encountered? Is what I have typical?
My plan is to weld tabs to the end of the outriggers so that I can pull the wall back in and tie it horizontally to the frame. Does this seem like a good plan?
Thanks!
Steve
'67 Ambassador International Twin
That sounds like a good plan to me if you don't catch anything on fire. Can you redrill the holes so that the bolts go through both the outrigger and the "C" channel on top of the ply? This would be the best
On my 1982 trailer it seems that maybe every other outrigger goes all the way to the wall channel for reference. I don't recall seeing any bolts through the shorter out riggers. (I get to replace more floor than originally thought).
I can visualize your plan and it sounds like a good one. Be careful with the heat and old dry wood - keep your extinguisher handy.
Can you redrill the holes so that the bolts go through both the outrigger and the "C" channel on top of the ply? This would be the best
I can do this if I weld on the extention tabs. As you can see, on the street side the "C" channel (and the rest of the wall) has spread. I looks as though the outer face of the "C" channel was aligned with the outer edge of the plywood, so I plan to extend the outrigger to just short of that allowing me to bolt through all three layers... as I assume it was meant to be.
Thanks for your comments... it's great to be able to bounce things like this off of helpful folks like you.
On my 1982 trailer it seems that maybe every other outrigger goes all the way to the wall channel for reference. I don't recall seeing any bolts through the shorter out riggers. (I get to replace more floor than originally thought).
Not all my outriggers extend all the way either, but in my trailer, on the street side, none of them do.
Congrats on "getting" to replace more floor than you thought... how lucky you are! I like your sense of humor on the subject.
You could just bolt on a piece of flat steel, rather than welding. I'm not sure the wooden floor can handle the heat of the welder. Just cut a piece of flat steel the length you need to extend the outrigger, then cut another piece twice that length and "scab" (I think that's the right term) the longer piece to the bottom of the outrigger and new extension piece with bolts of some kind. Just a thought.
Jim
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I'm not sure the wooden floor can handle the heat of the welder.
Jim,
Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking that if I loosen or remove the next elevator bolt toward the center I will be able to drive a wedge between the outrigger and the plywood. This should create enough separation to protect the plywood while welding the tabs. They won't require very much of a weld anyway. My interior flooring consists of loose laid carpet tiles, so it is easy for me to get at all E bolts fairly easily.
I'll be sure to let everyone know if I can do this without buring up the trailer. LOL!
If I don't succeed, I may be in the same boat as crispyboy... replacing more flooring than I thought.
I would imagine your could get by with a few spot welds and low amps on the weld to keep the heat down since these outriggers are thin anyway. The frame should act as a pretty good heatsink.
If you plwood is in good shape it should be preventing the bottom of the body from moving horizontally even if the channel is not bolted to all of the outriggers. Having more attachments to the outriggers is a good idea though. In my case on the curbside behind wheels the plywood was rotted in some places and the bottom of the body was about 1" wider in that area because the plywood was not holding it in place and there were basically no bolts into the ends of the outriggers.
So the bottom line in my opinion is that more attachements to the outriggers is good idea. Especially if there are none as there seemed to be in my case. I do not think that you would really need to attach to all of them to have enough attachment but the extra would not hurt.
Malcolm
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